Inside the Battle for Crude Oil Pricing Power: Why NYSE Parent ICE Was Forced to Approach Hyperliquid?

TradingKey — Recently, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, extended an olive branch to Hyperliquid in hopes of establishing a partnership. ICE Founder and CEO Jeff Sprecher claimed to have met with the Hyperliquid team multiple times to discuss cooperation, making the startling statement: "Hyperliquid is already larger than Nasdaq ( NDAQ ), and they are incredibly smart. We are engaging closely with their management." However, what exactly is Hyperliquid? Why would ICE humble itself to seek cooperation? Is this Wall Street giant facing some kind of crisis?

What is Hyperliquid?

If Binance ( BNB) is the leader of centralized exchanges (CEX), then Hyperliquid is the derivatives powerhouse of the decentralized on-chain world. Through Hyperliquid, users can trade not only cryptocurrencies but also gold, commodities, and pre-IPO "shadow derivatives" such as SpaceX.

Hyperliquid's defining characteristic is not its coverage of various underlying assets, but rather its complete migration of the "central limit order book"—the standard most familiar to traditional Wall Street—entirely on-chain. This enables lightning-fast order execution and settlement of tens of thousands of transactions per second with zero latency, significantly enhancing the user experience and overturning the perception of poor on-chain trading performance.

Why is ICE seeking a partnership with Hyperliquid?

Just two weeks ago, ICE was partnering with the CME to pressure the U.S. Congress and regulators, accusing Hyperliquid of "manipulating oil prices and evading sanctions." Yet, two weeks later, the founder of ICE publicly lauded the 11-person team as "larger than Nasdaq and incredibly smart," while actively seeking a collaboration with Hyperliquid for two key internal and external reasons.

ICE's Brent crude futures are the global energy pricing benchmark, but traditional financial markets close on Friday evenings. By contrast, Hyperliquid’s 24/7 crude oil perpetual contracts attracted massive liquidity over the weekend—with daily trading volume exceeding $700 million—effectively seizing global oil pricing power on Saturdays and Sundays. Moreover, while traditional financial institutions employ thousands in compliance, clearing, and technology at a high cost, Hyperliquid has utilized an 11-person engineering team to facilitate nearly $3 trillion in cumulative trading volume.

How will HYPE evolve?

The olive branch of "seeking cooperation and multiple contacts" extended by the CEO of ICE, the parent company of the NYSE, has undoubtedly provided a powerful "shot in the arm" for Hyperliquid's native token, HYPE. Following the news, HYPE's price saw a rapid jump of approximately 10%, maintaining its high position above $60 even as the broader crypto market weakened.

HYPE price chart, source: TradingView

In the long run, HYPE's role could evolve from a platform token into a global compliant settlement layer. Should a partnership materialize, HYPE—serving as the gas fee and validator staking token for the chain—could potentially capture clearing value from traditional Wall Street. However, as discussions are currently in the preliminary stages and no formal agreement has been reached, the situation warrants close monitoring.